THE EXCOMMUNICATION OF FR. TISSA BALASURIYA [SRI LANKA]

14 August 1997

My Dear Mr. Fernando,

Thanks for sending me the book Power vs. Conscience authored by you. I am pained at the excommunication of Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, who was, as mentioned by you, following the teaching of Bishop Leo [Nanayakkara of Sri Lanka] for whom "God, faith and spirituality were very much linked to human rights, social justice and human promotion." I am really shocked to read that Bishop [Malcolm] Ranjith [of Sri Lanka] should suggest that Jesus "was not bothered about social oppression, injustice and the like [that were] strongly visible in His own times [and that] He showed us how meaningless it was to think about political and economic freedom without first turning our lives to God. . . . The world is not expecting us [the Church] to give them bread and butter, neither do they want us to tell them why they are poor."

I would, if permitted, call Bishop Ranjith’s teaching blasphemy that seeks to undermine the ideal of Jesus as a crusader for the poor.

As a matter of act, I have many times in my public comments criticized Hindu religious institutions for ignoring the daily needs of the poor and have paid compliments to those Christian missionaries who have that sense of affinity with the deprived. I have given expression to my thinking in an interview in an issue of Legal News and Views of December 1994 published by the Social Action Trust in Delhi. . . .

I am sure spirited defense by you and others will meet with success very soon and establish firmly what Jesus stood for and what Gandhi-ji and Swami Vivekanand maintained, that "service of the poor is service of God."

. . .

With best wishes,

Rajindar Sachar

Chief Justice (Ret.), High Court of Delhi

U.N. Special Rapporteur on Housing

President, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) India (Ex.)